From JunkScience.com
WashPost: Freedom of Information Act not for skeptics’ use
In a bizarre Memorial Day editorial, the Washington Post criticized climate skeptics for using the Freedom of Information Act to pry documents concerning Climategater Michael Mann from the University of Virginia.
The Post labeled the skeptics’ FOIA efforts as “harrassing” and “nuisance tactics.”
The Post, however, has been entirely silent on Greenpeace’s efforts to FOIA documents from the University of Virginia concerning Pat Michaels, University of Delaware concerning David Legates and from Harvard University concerning Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas — efforts that are truly “harrassing” and “nuisance” in nature as Greenpeace acted entirely in retaliation to the FOIA request concerning Mann.
The editorial is especially gross coming on the day when America commemorates those who died to preserve everyone’s freedoms — not just those of the politically correct.
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And I’ll add the post has been entirely silent on the fact the George Mason University, when asked by USA Today reporter Dan Vergano to produce documents related to the whole vindictive DeepClimate (Dave Clarke) and John Mashey assault on Wegman and Said at GMU. Vergano asked for “expedited service” and requests that “fees be waived”.
Not only did GMU comply, they did so quickly, without complaint, waived fees, and provided everything on a USB flash drive they sent to USA Today’s Vergano.
That is the starkest contrast to the whining , wailing, and gnashing of teeth surrounding the FOIA requests for other universities like UEA and UVA . It vividly illustrates the elitism and bigotry of the organizations and the people who believe themselves to be above the law as well as the organizations who fan the flames by coming to their defense citing “academic freedom”. Bottom line – use of public money makes the process and results open to public scrutiny to all who request the information, no matter who they are. Don’t like the scrutiny? Then don’t take the public money.
Steve McIntyre writes:
The difference in how academic institutions have responded to the seemingly similar requests in respect to Wegman and Mann is quite startling. George Mason gave expedited service to a request for Wegman’s emails; the U of Virginia has done the opposite. George Mason turned over Wegman’s correspondence with an academic journal without litigation; the University of Virginia has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on litigation. Multiple academic lobby groups protested the production of Mann’s emails as a matter of principle; the same organizations were and remain silent in respect to Wegman.
What is doubly bizarre is that apparently this FOIA request has led to the discovery that Dr. Ray Bradley, Mann co-author with the hockey stick paper “MBH98”, apparently committed academic misconduct in his zeal to smear Wegman.
From Climate Audit:
…the README included by George Mason stated the “documents may not be forwarded to a third party”. It also included the GMU policy on academic misconduct, stating Bradley had violated the confidentiality terms – a point not reported by USA Today:
The materials in this USB are being provided in compliance with the Virginia FOIA. Many of the documents are published research papers that are copyrighted by their respective publishers. All other documents are copyrighted by Edward J. Wegman and Yasmin H. Said or by their respective authors. All rights are reserved. These documents may not be forwarded to a third party. Also included in this USB is the George Mason University policy document 4007 on academic misconduct. This policy requires confidentiality for all parties including complainants, in this case Professor Raymond Bradley. This confidentiality requirement was violated by Professor Bradley.
Also, last week, I sent an email to WaPo’s ombudsman, requesting space to rebut Bill McKibben’s senseless bloviation about tornadoes and climate change. No response.
In light of their non-acknowledgement of a similar process by Greenpeace using FOIA laws to get records on climate skeptics Michaels, Legates, Soon, and Baliunas, plus their non-acknowledgement of my request, WaPo’s editorial gist comes across like this:
One rule of use for AGW proponents, another for skeptics.
To me, it smacks of this sort of ugly thinking.
Bob is correct. Nick is just mad that basic rules of science – and that little impediment called the law – are being applied to his pet foolishness.
Mark
gopher,
You wanna bet whether the WaPo has filed an foi request or two on the bank crisis?
Nick Stokes says:
May 30, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Bob says: May 30, 2011 at 2:20 pm
So Bob, do you think every scientist should have to jump through those hoops for just anyone who demands. Over and over?
What avtually do we pay scientists to do?
With the internet, it’s not that hard. That’s what John Lott did with his study on guns and crime; he made all the data available to anyone with internet access.
http://www.johnlott.org/
IF John could do it, what can’t the other scientists?
(Unless they have something to hide.)
Besides isn’t that the whole point of peer review?
Bob Diaz
Spence_UK says: May 30, 2011 at 2:58 pm
“All FOIA requests are equal. But some requests are more equal than others.”
Some are certainly more demanding than others. That one would have taken years to fulfill. Then when finished, you can start on the next one. It’s a sure way to stop science.
And Bob, yes, I don’t think Michaels’ emails should have been demanded, and I was glad when the demand failed. “Show the data or get out of public research.” This ATI demand was not for data. It was a demand for code and personal emails.
I should add that this is the result of the FOIA:
Without it, the deception would go unchecked.
Bob Diaz
I think Nick just said,
They’ve always done it this way, so why should they do it the right way now?
Nick, sorry. This FOIA request might be over the top (or not), it does not matter.
It is what it is….perfectly legal, completely within everyone’s rights.
A lot of grant hogs have been getting away with these things for way too long.
Personally, I would like to see it become common within every field of science that gets public (my) money.
Bob Diaz says: May 30, 2011 at 3:12 pm
“IF John could do it, what can’t the other scientists?”
Mann does put his data online. ATI is demanding personal emails, including an accounting for anything that was ever deleted.. I don’t think John is putting those on line. Or those of Mary Rosh.
In all my efforts to figure out where the accusation that skeptic scientists received fossil fuel money in exchange for fabricated climate assessments, I ran across this gem from the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s web pages, circa 2001 http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/wp_letter.html
It’s a reprint of their letter to the Washington Post, which contains a swipe at S Fred Singer in its 3rd paragraph, via a link to another of their WashPo letters. Of particular interest is the CSPI note at the top of the web page saying, “Shortly after this letter was sent, and in response to it, Ms. Spayd reminded Washington Post reporters to inquire about conflicts of interest and to disclose them.”
A de facto way of marginalizing skeptic scientists, in other words, as readers who see ties to fossil fuel funding would naturally assume the funding is what prompts those scientists’ anti-AGW opinions………
The MSM is very much about covering up for liberals and liberal causes.
It’s not just where they get their pay checks from, but the policy implications. Banning light bulbs, Smart Meters / Grid, energy prices, new appliances, cost of food, to the type of car you drive are all in the mix, so excuse me if we stick a microscope up there to check you for polyps.
Now be honest. Are any of you surprised.
This is an indication of the character of the academics populating most major universities. All candidates for hanging for treason.
I don’t know if I’d call the editorial “bigoted”. I think a better term might be “hypocritical”, or “two-faced”, or “poorly though out”, or “sloppy”.
Science is merely a pretext here. Big Green is moving on, regardless of political stripes and those academics are just the tip of the iceberg. They have been made to believe they are at the centre of attention while in fact Big Green has already discarded them more or less. The battle was won at Copenhagen but the war is raging and so far, despite Kyoto, despite little greening of political landscapes, Big Green and their powerful bankers are moving fast into restricting our energy use.
And when power is down, so is the internet, communication and people’s ability to fight them.
Nick Stokes,
It would be very useful to see the email traffic requested in the FOI simply because of what we learned about Mann, his toxic attitude towards those who dared question his work and his clique, and -above all – his methods, all beautifully exposed through the “personal” Climategate emails.
He and his old alma mater better pray there is no evidence of anything resembling malfeasance in the information, because if there is, the justice folks will have grounds to look at that as obstruction of justice. That would get both Mann and the university in a way hotter spot than they are now.
Anthony,
Re: “Academic Freedom” and Virginia Freedom of Information
2010-2011 Virginia Freedom of Information Act
Effective date 7/1/10-6/30/11
That’s it. There are currently no exclusions allowed for “academic freedom”
under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.
Material from educational institutions that might qualify for an exclusion
has to be “of a proprietary nature . If not of proprietary nature, then
it won’t qualify for an exemption even if it’s “data, records, or information”
that “has not been publicly released, published, copyrighted or patented”.
What, if any of Mike Mann’s stuff qualifies as “of a proprietary nature”
under Virginia law ?
See the Virginia FOI Act at:
http://www.opengovva.org/virginias-foia-the-law
TomRude
As of last week-end’s G8 meeting, Kyoto and any potential offspring-of-Kyoto are dead. With the new majority government in Canada, cap-and-trade or any other form of overarching carbon taxation is dead in North America. AGW/ACC is now a non-issue with voters in North America and a good number of countries in Europe, and the leading large developing countries have just started to crank up their use of hydrocarbon energy sources.
In spite of self-serving political statements of government support for renewables, Big Green is in fact running into the wall of disappearing subsidies throughout the developed economies. Just ask Jeff Immelt, GE’s CEO -who despite being aS green as green can be and who chairs Obama’s advisory council on “green” energy – just a couple of weeks ago during a press conference with investors publicly reminded himself that it is time for GE to get back to its core [non-green] business. Maybe somebody on his board told him about the reality that governments are broke, not least the US federal government. Without those crucial subsidies Big Green simply has no “business”, becasue as a recent UK study showed, the true cost of wind and solar [on an apples to apples basis] is equivalent to crude at US$500/barrel.
So I think it will be a while yet before Big Green takes over the running of the world.
The fact that publicly funded data is not publicly available makes it worthless immediately. If you believed the world was ending, not making your results available would be the last thing on your mind. They are guarding the castle walls. Mann the catapults…
Nick Stokes wonders what we pay scientists for? Well Nick the scientists who are paid by public funds are paid to be honest and accountable. So put all your data on a public FTP site and get ready to answer some questions.
What do you think we pay scientists for? To talk to each other and ignore us?
I surprised that no one noticed the irony of the Washington Post editorial, when it was a direct result of the Washington Post (Watergate) that made these kinds of FOIA’s possible.
sounds familiar…the Guardian ran a similar story a couple of days ago.
Any regular observer of media can see that there is a centralized or agreed or common strategy in place for hanging on to their bit of ‘high ground’ namely headlines or lead stories in sympathetic media outlets. Think ‘Common Purpose’.
The purpose of these recent stories is to deflect attention from big bad issues…like the collapse of Kyoto. Spin.
The problem with spin of course is that the spinner eventually gets dizzy. And the public get confused about what it true and what is false.
When I tried to comment along these lines I was ‘pre-moderated’ off the Blog.
Removal of opposing opinions from such greenie blogs is good…it enhances the echo chamber effect that finished off the likes of Joe Romm…
Say it loud, I’m correct and I’m proud.
Sarc/On
The holy mass of climate science is written in Latin. You peons cannot understand Latin. Just shut up and pay your tithe to Cardinal Mann.
Sarc/off
Worms flee the light. Liberty holds her torch high, and spreads the light.
R.S.Brown says:
May 30, 2011 at 5:08 pm
“That’s it. There are currently no exclusions allowed for “academic freedom”
under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.”
ROTFLMAO! The idea that “academic freedom” merits an exclusion is comparable to what…let me think…The idea that property rights merit an exclusion to property taxes.
Caleb, you might enjoy this.
PaulH says:
May 30, 2011 at 3:57 pm
‘I don’t know if I’d call the editorial “bigoted”. I think a better term might be “hypocritical”, or “two-faced”, or “poorly though out”, or “sloppy”.’
Maybe he should have said “expressing Warmista bigotry,” as in “expressing male bigotry.” Warmista are bigots; otherwise, they would not use their little Marxist/Alinsky creation “Deniers.”
This is hilariously funny, really, since it was a liberal President and Congress that passed the FOIA in ’66. The primary idea was to legalize looking at the files of political rivals, so I suppose that when the tables are turned…..
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/foia/special.html
For how many searches are done under FOIA, a search of this site should be of some benefit:
http://searchjustice.usdoj.gov/search?q=FREEDOM+OF+INFORMATION&btnG.x=37&btnG.y=15&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=iso-8859-1&oe=UTF-8&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&site=default_collection